


A Thousand Times

by KiwiWitch



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Pre-Yashahime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26689852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiwiWitch/pseuds/KiwiWitch
Summary: Four years is hardly more than a blip for long lived youkai. And yet, for Sesshoumaru, it feels as if he's lived half a thousand lifetimes.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Kagura/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Miroku/Sango (InuYasha)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 38





	A Thousand Times

A less than worthless youkai. Such was the Ne No Kubi. 

Still, it was a problem that needed to be dealt with. Slithering beneath the earth, they smelled of dirt and rot, making it hard to track, and with so many tendrils making up its body it was evasive. Not so far above Kohaku’s abilities, or Inuyasha and the miko’s, but it would still pose a greater threat than he would like to leave to chance.

Nothing more than a nuisance, and yet, not for the first time, or the last, Sesshoumaru found himself standing guard above a human village. 

The humans cowering in their homes meant little to him, even if he cared at all they were hardly in danger, between his brother and his wife, the monk and the sibling demon slayers, the old miko, and even the fox kit would put an end to the root’s menace. But, as he’d learned years ago, there were simply too many opportunities to put that much faith into them. Not when Rin huddled with the slayer’s children in the hut below his feet.

“Ah, it’s Sesshoumaru-sama…” Kohaku sounded surprised to see him. 

It was almost insulting, that they were still shocked whenever he turned up, as if it hadn't already been three and a half years in which he’d been nothing but cordial with the humans scurrying around the village in a panic. 

Ridiculous, that he’d been brought this low.

And he didn’t even get a thank you.

He could live with out their gratitude, considering that his only concern was Rin, Kohaku could take care of himself and the other children were incidental, and he certainly wasn’t rushing off to help his brother kill the damned thing.

He watched them struggle, his brother with the miko on his back as he jumped wildly―trying to anticipate the movements of the enemy lurking beneath his feet while the slayer hovered atop her hellcat in the sky above, following the action, her muscles twitching every time she thought she could predict where the roots would strike next. The monk… well, he was in no position to keep up with the rest of them, but Sesshoumaru supposed he could respect the man’s perseverance.

The hairs on the back of his neck rose as an arrow shot through the air and hit the ground, its holy aura luminescent. If the youkai had been the arrow’s intended target Kaede had surely failed, but the monster reacted, its twisted body exploded from the earth as it tried to devour the miko. Sesshoumaru didn’t bother wondering why she’d left the safety of his brothers back as gigantic fangs split the dirt and nearly closed on her foot―fool’s luck that his brother was quick enough to snatch her before she was eaten alive.

Now the damned thing had finally shown itself, its monstrous body full of too many bulging eyes and a mouth that split its bulbous head in half with rows of too sharp teeth. At least it would be easier to kill, now that they had a target, he supposed that it would only be a little longer before he could leave― 

Except that now that it was free of the earth, it decided the best course of action was to destroy everything in sight.

It thrashed, shooting out hundreds of spindly roots as thick as tree trunks that bludgeoned anything in their path; the fields, the trees, a few homes, and― 

The hut right beneath his feet.

Or it would have, had he not caught the offending appendage and ripped it from its host. 

Below, Kohaku shrieked, his weapon held tightly in his fist. A useless gesture, the arm would have crushed him and the building they both guarded had Sesshoumaru not reacted in time. 

The hut wasn’t damaged, but Rin ran outside, the infant slung across her back and the twins at her heels. Kohaku shooed them back in, but it would hardly make a difference, the monster had chosen to flee. Faced with his brother and the miko, the demon slayer and the monk, it rushed towards the forest, its hulking mass wreaking destruction in its wake―it missed the hut where the children hid once again, but for Sesshoumaru it was already too late.

It’s first assault had come too close, and he could no longer watch as his brother failed to bring the beast to heel. By the time it crashed through the first line of trees he wasn’t far behind the rest of them.

Between the havoc it wrought and the immense expanse of its body it wasn’t hard to follow, but where in the village it had only had its stealth and the ability to hide beneath the earth, it quickly became apparent that within the forest it could put different skills to use. 

The first of which being weaponizing its fellow trees. 

Being a youkai made of roots, it should have been no surprise that it could put other foliage to use―and yet the first full grown tree aimed at his head still took him a little by surprise.

Inconvenient more than threatening, Sesshoumaru merely cut through it, and through a storm of splinters and debris he caught sight of the demon slayer and the monk hovering above the forest atop the hellcat, trying to spot his brother through the chaotic forest.

A spot of red and the cold chill of the miko’s aura and the ground trembled.

He caught up just in time to see the miko stood still in the clearing before the Tree of Ages, her bow still in her hand while the string still shivered from the release of an arrow and― 

The Ne No Kubi, like a cancerous growth, coiled around the trunk of the tree, its teeth dug into into the bark and an arrow sticking out of what had once been an eye. The monster groaned, mumbled something unintelligible, and while it appeared that the arrow hadn’t done any damage his brother readied his sword, but…

It gave a great keening screech, a sound no living thing should make, its flesh―or whatever it was that made up its foul hide―began to pulse, twitching wildly as its fangs dug even further into the trunk, its roots slithering and twisting around the tree and its branches, its roots, until the tree itself was hardly visible, it shut its eyes and its fangs disappeared into the meat of the tree, becoming one― 

The tree shook, a violent tremor and a thunderous crack as the trunk looked as if it might split when the ground rolled. The roots that had once held his brother’s unconscious body slithered, undulating and pulsing as if they had a heartbeat of their own, twitching violently as the Ne No Kubi’s roots entwined with that of the tree―until there was no separation between the two, writhing and tightly intertwined―His brother shouted something, and the miko readied her bow―there was a another earth shaking crack and the tree rippled, as if suddenly made of water, no longer a solid thing, it bent and warped, its silhouette mutated and its leaves hissed as if shaken by a gale― 

Where once his brother had lain frozen and sealed, a bulbous, blood shot eye opened, it’s gaze flickering over them, frantic, before the pupil rolled back, nothing but the creeping veins visible across the whites of its eyes― 

There was a light, brief and blinding―even he had to shut his eyes again the glare―and by the time the light had faded, and he could open his eyes, the tree only suffered a few more residual trembles before it quieted, standing as statuesque and serene as it had everyday for the previous three years, as if it hadn’t just mutated before their very eyes. Everyone was silent, expectant, holding their breath and waiting for whatever would come next. There was no sign of the Ne No Kubi, no tint to the tree’s aura, no out of place smell when Sesshoumaru inhaled, none except…

“What the fuck?!”

He turned at his brother’s voice, followed Inuyasha’s gaze and the trail of that misplaced scent to the base of the tree, to see the figure nestled in its roots, looking dazed and blinking dumbly at them, as if she’d simply crawled out of the earth, as if hardly a day had passed― 

“...Kagura?”

**Author's Note:**

> this is solely based on what I know of the HNY plot as of 9/27/2020. I don’t care what happens after this week and I WILL die on this hill.
> 
> Anyway, I don’t have a plot or storyline for this, so feel free to send me any prompts/ideas/requests and I’ll try to make something of it


End file.
